


We will build a haven

by EnderSquid



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Blood, Blood and Injury, Child Abuse, Hybrid Experimentation, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture, Non-Consensual Drug Use, PowersSMP, The Nether (Minecraft), chickeninnit, freakshow - Freeform, hybrid trafficking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-12 06:01:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 13,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29505201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnderSquid/pseuds/EnderSquid
Summary: Eight hybrids. Eight stories. One home.
Relationships: Jschlatt & Wilbur Soot, Niki | Nihachu & Ranboo & Toby Smith | Tubbo, Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit & Phil Watson
Comments: 40
Kudos: 268





	1. Philza

Phil remembered days when he would soar over the heads of the citizens of the end when he felt so free, not contained like an animal in a cell for people to gawk at.

But those days were gone the moment he left to explore the overworld and the nether, coming across the worst of humans who would use him to make elytra when he died.  
That's what they had told him to his face.

Until then he was a prop for them to gain what they wanted.  
He had been for three years.

He deeply regretted ever leaving the end to begin with, leaving the shulk and the enderian, leaving behind the endless beauty that the end always held.  
The days the ender dragon, the protector of the end, would fly overhead and leave a sparkling trail of end particles.

Cutting off his train of thought was the screaming of a child, a young boy, and the shouting of one of the freakshow owners.

Just in the corner of his eyes, Phil could see a child being dragged along by the owner, towards the back of the tent.

That hold would never be seen again.

And by the looks of it, the owners were going to have an iron rose hanging up in their little trophy room.

Phil sighed and lowered his head, knowing that there was nothing he could do to protect or help the boy, and the boys' blood would be shed over the ground and his body would be piled in with the rest.  
Just so that they could feed the carnivores.

The screaming halted abruptly, and silence returned, the silent sobs of other mobs mixing into the drowning silence that threatened to strangle everyone in the tent.

A normal day in the freakshow.

An event would be held in another hour or so, and then they would leave, moving so that they would entertain villagers everywhere.  
A cruel thing humans were.

In the end, people had the ender dragon to guide them, in the nether they had the wither.  
Humans had no one.  
They were forceful and cruel to what they didn't understand.

Phil wished he could run away and be free, find a place that he and other mobs could be safe from the netherite grip of the humans that always seemed to want a piece of them.

“Hey, you, elytrian!” Phil turned his eyes and head towards the whisper from one of the cells.  
Two boys were in the cell, one a wither skeleton hybrid, while the other appeared to be a zombie piglin hybrid.

Phil sighed and waves his hand, “what do you want?” he kept his voice low.

“We know a way you can get out.” Phil felt himself perk up slightly, even if these boys’ might just be kidding with him.

“You two better not be joking about this.” the two boys looked at each other then back at Phil.  
“We aren’t,” “We promise.” 

Phil nodded for the boys to continue, “so the owner is fucking cheap, and well, he hasn't replaced the tent in months...” The boys nodded towards the opening in the tent that led to the main area.  
“And just above where you perform without cuffs is where a hole is forming, you could fly out from there.” Phil felt a small hope build up in his chest.

“I'll try it, but what about you two boys?” the boy’s shoulders sagged as they looked around.  
“We’re being shipped off tomorrow to be killed, and we can't fly, but we thought we might as well tell someone who could.” Phil nodded, shifting in his cage.

“Thank you two...” Phil could finally taste freedom again, freedom from this dreaded cage that only brought sadness and gloom.

“Don't thank us, thank our brother.” the boys pointed towards an axolotl hybrid who was resting away in a water tank, going grey from the mistreatment that had been placed upon him.

Phil nodded, “thank you three...” Phil looked back at the two boys to see the wither skeleton boy handing him a pendant, one with a glistening heart at the end of it.  
“Take it, we don't want it to be taken by the bad people.” Phil reached a shaking hand towards the pendant and liked his hands around it, pulling it to his chest as people started to fill in the area behind him.  
The area that would be his escape.

“What...what are your names?” The boy looked towards his brothers and smiled, “I’m Wilbur,” he pointed towards the zombie piglin, “This is Technoblade, ” and he moved his hands over towards the axolotl, “and that's Tommy.” Phil nodded, committing the names into his memory.

Phil had thirty minutes before he would escape.

|

Phil felt shackles around his wrists as he was led into the light of the arena, feeling the sound that the people made as he entered.  
They awed and gawked at him.

He was nothing but a prop to them.

Phil looked back at the boys again, seeing Wilbur and Technoblade embracing each other as he finally left their sight.

He knew he'd never see them again if this went as planned, if it didn't go as planned, then his head would be on a stick.

Phil looked up at the crowd and the ceiling of the tent seeing a rip just above him, so open to the blue sky above and the fluffy white clouds that Phil hadn't seen in year's.

The crowd faded into the background as Phil looked up through that rip just to see the sky.  
It wasn't the end, but the blue was always so nice.

“And here we have a freak of nature from the end realm, an elytrian!” Phil broke from the hypnosis that the sky had placed on him, the shouting of the owner breaking through his ears and making him feel like attacking the man right there.  
But he didn’t.

He felt the cuffs come off his wrists, and he flexed his wings to start up the ‘performance’.

The crowd cheered as he flew up into the air, performing flips and twirls, always eyeing the tear in the fabric like he was an osprey hunting for a fish.  
The dense air of the tent circled his wings as he began to fly higher and higher.

Until he finally broke free.

He passed through the tear, hearing screaming from behind him as the owner attempted his best to get what he would call the product back.  
Phil could only imagine the three boys' faces.

And he hoped that they would find a way out just like him.

Phil began to quickly move away from the tent, hearing the shouting and yelling fade behind him as he flew over the treetops, away from billowing smoke and the suffocating air that surrounded the village.

He was free.

He could build that haven just like he had always wanted ever since he got abducted three years ago.

Joy filled his heart as he freely flew, the fresh air filling his nostrils as he stopped up and down, shouting with glee as he finally felt free without his wings chained or damaged, without the thought that he would be turned into an accessory at any moment.

Now he just had to find a safe place.

He had to make it far away from any human civilization, then he could build, building a home for himself and many others to come.

He flew over lakes and rivers, flying over different biomes just so he'd be as far away as possible from the village he was just in, trying to fly far enough away to settle down, even if only for a little while.

And he soon saw it.

A lake, surrounded by hills, mountains and forests, connected by a river to what was no doubt an ocean.  
And Phil hadn't seen a human village for miles, this was probably as safe as he would get.

Phil swooped down, finding a safe spot to land among the trees and onto the soft green grass that greeted him as he landed. He gently settles down and looked at the scene before him.

He had been travelling for an entire day, just so he could build a home, and here it was.

This is where home would be.

Phil smiled and rested his eyes, settling against a tree and relaxing for once in so many long months, finally feeling a peace that had been ripped away so long ago just for someone else entertainment.

He was free.

And while rested well that night, even with the terrible thought that always lingered in the back of his mind.  
His head was only set on the three boys, and how they ended up, what their fate had been.

How painful would it have been?

He slept a dreamless sleep that night, resting well into the afternoon before he finally awoke again.

And he started building.

Phil broke down the tree that he had rested against, placing a seedling in its old spot.

Then he got to work, opening an inventory he hadn't used in years, always killed to make sure he had nothing on him.  
He crafted a crafting table and got to work making wooden tools.

The pendant on his neck rattled and shook as he worked to make planks and when he began mining stone.  
A burning reminder of what he used to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I sometimes think about how Karl will travel back in time and makes friends but immediately has to leave them afterwards and never gets to see them again.  
> That was my only thought when I was writing this, maybe some birb, but that too.


	2. Niki

The waters were always colder in the winter, always emptier.

Niki swam through the old currents of the ocean, seeing nothing up ahead. Just like all the days before.

Niki was alone, without her pod, they had abandoned her.  
And she was left to die.

Niki looked up to the top of the ocean, seeing the sky just beyond the grasp of the ocean that she would always be bound to as a merling.

Niki swam closer up to the surface, seeing the darkness that the sky always held.  
And she broke through the surface, looking at the setting sun as it lowered over the horizon, ready to one back the next day for the same thing it always did.  
Niki felt the cold air on her skin, feeling the icy air gripping her and draining her of water.

She ducked back below the surface, going down into the depths and continuing her journey south.

Or what she thought was south.

Niki didn't have a compass on her, nor could she find any compasses in the shipwrecks she always came across.

Niki swam past a school of glowing squid, smiling as the squids bubbled and swam around, talking to each other in their private language.

A small glow squid swam around her head, and she laughed as the small squid bubbles happily, tapping her on her nose as she passed by.

Then the baby squid looked back to its family and made a distressed noise.

Niki turned back and saw the family of squids being lifted towards the surface by an iceberg.

Niki swam into action, swimming to the squid and grabbing at the netting that surrounded them, biting into it with her sharp teeth and cutting the netting.

Squids began to slide free, and Niki continued biting at the netting, not noticing that she was being tangled into the netting as well.  
When the last squid finally moved out, Niki made a move to swim away.  
But couldn’t.

Niki began to struggle to free her tail and wrists from the netting as it lifted her upwards, the small squid trying to swim after her, but soon its glow was nothing but a memory in Niki’s mind.

A blast of cold air hit Niki, and she started gasping for breath, feeling it all leave her in seconds as she was brought above her ocean home.  
The iceberg was nothing of the such, and five humans stood on the ship.

They all looked dumbfounded at their unexpected catch.

Then the tallest started laughing, saying something to his crewmates.

“Boss...I don't think this is ethical...” The smallest boy cringed as Niki began flopping around in mid-air, attempting to flee back into the ocean for air.

“Nonsense, you know how much people pay for fresh merling, and besides, my wife would love to have some of its scales.”

Niki hissed at the men as they began to cut her down from the netting, but also kept her contained as they painfully scratched at her scales and cut through her skin just to get the netting down.  
Niki felt her blood dripping down her skin and onto the floor of the boat, and dripping into her old home.

The blue blood stained the floor of the boat, running down to the captain's feet as he prepared a tank that was far too small for Niki to be comfortable in.  
They threw her in there anyways.

Niki was crammed into the tiny space and a lid was placed over the tank, leaving Niki to complete darkness.

|

Niki sat in an uncomfortable position the entire ride, and just when she thought she would be left in darkness, the lid opened.  
It was the boy.

“Hey, I'm not going to hurt you..” The boy's voice was low and quiet, being masked by the waves.  
It was dark.

Niki shifted to get a better look at the boy, seeing two white eyes staring back at her.  
“I'm like you, so I'm getting you out of here.” The boy and his eyes began to burn into the back of Niki’s mind, messing with her senses as she became less tense and calmer.

“I'm a son of herobrine, so you won't die.” Niki nodded, and the boy, who Niki realized was probably older than her, lifted her from the tank, leaving Niki with the feeling of breathlessness that she had experienced earlier. The boy carried her to the side of the boat and quickly dumped her into the warmer water.

Niki relished in the water. The water seeped into her skin and calmed her senses, and the bit smiled sadly as he looked down at her.  
“Now go, the captain will wake soon.” Niki nodded, quickly beginning to swim away, hearing a knife unsheath behind her.

The boy held a knife to his arms and began to make cuts and touching himself up to make it look like he had been in a fight.  
The boy saw his blood drip down his arm, the white blood quickly turning red.

He threw the knife overboard, watching Niki swim off into the distance, towards somewhere she could be safe.

Niki heard the shouting of the captain fade away as she swam farther and farther away.  
Niki looked back once to see the boy being confronted by the captain.

And she didn't look back again.

|

Niki sat in a coral reef, calming her aching heart as she finally settled down, smiling as schools of fish passed her by, filling up the dull world with colour.  
Giving life to an empty and cruel world.

Niki hadn't seen other merlings for a while now, and her heart ached at the thought of never finding a pod for herself again. Niki looked onto the rocks below her, seeing various sea creatures playing together and living happily.

They would always have someone else.

The sunlight from the human world above passed down onto the bottom of the coral reef, just lighting up the small school of fish that passed by Niki.  
It warmed Niki’s skin, feeling the sunlight hit her as she rested upon the colourful coral that painted a picture around her.

But soon she would have to move again, this wasn't her reef to live in, nor was it the right part of the ocean that was right for her.

She would need to continue moving, and she wouldn't be foolish like last time.

|

Niki swam for three sleepless nights, pushing herself to swim even more before she finally collapsed and sank to the bottom.  
The coral had long since been replaced by shipwrecks and under cliffs and caves, adding a more sole and bare aesthetic than the colourful coral that Niki had been in three days before.

With other fish.

And not alone.

The water was colder again, pinching and biting at her skin. Small jellyfish sometimes floated past, but Niki didn't know how to speak to jellyfish, or if they spoke at all.  
Maybe they were just that, jelly, nothing special.

Niki paused for a moment as the water above her rippled, moving as if something had hit it.  
Something was above Niki.

Niki began to dive down into the water more, just seeing a winged shape above her that seemed to stare down at her like she was the perfect prey for any predator.  
It wanted her.  
It wanted to hurt her.

Niki backs down into the seagrass at the edge of the water, watching a vaguely human-like shape circling and always seeming to want to get closer.

Two glowing eyes stared down at her as she started up, one a green she had never seen before, and a brownish colour.  
It knew she was here, and it would follow her.

Niki moved deeper into the grass, watching the thing with tired and sleepy eyes.  
She struggled to stay awake as she lay in the soft seagrass.

It would be so nice...to just....fall......asleep.

Niki opened her eyes again to see sunlight and a teen staring down at her.  
“Hi.”

Niki screeched and moved back from the teen, who was also submerged in the water with her, eyebrow raised.

“What? You look like you just saw a ghost!” the teen laughed at his joke, and Niki rolled her eyes, moving away from the teen and deeper into the water.

The teen stay in his spot in the water, “sorry for trying to attack you last night, you were sleep-deprived and I'm a phantom, it's my thing to attack the sleep-deprived.”  
Niki nodded, she guessed that that made sense.

And Niki must have fallen asleep.  
“Why are you in the water?” the teen tilted his head, “we phantoms burn in the sun.” the teen raised himself from the water and just floated above it.

And then burst into flames.

Niki fled back as the teen dove back down, extinguishing the flame that had appeared on his body.

The teen laughed at Niki’s terrified expression, cooling himself in the water after he burnt up.

“What were you thinking? You could've killed yourself!” Niki just shouted, and the teen shrugged, “it happens all the time, I haven't died yet.”

Niki sighed, rubbing her temples, “what's your name?” the teen blanked, staring into space as his mouth was left open, trying to form the sounds that would be his name.  
But nothing came out.

“Well...I’m Niki.” The teen nodded, “good to know one of us knows our name..” Niki nodded.  
“Well, until I do, just call me phantom.” Niki nodded, reaching out her hand for Phantom to shake it.

Phantom shook it and smiled a toothy grin, “now let's get moving!” Phantom began swimming in a random direction.  
“Moving where?” Niki called out, following Phantom as he moved.

“I heard a rumour from some people from a freakshow saw an Elytrian leave to form his own haven...” Phantom turned back to Niki, a smirk across his face.  
“And we're going to go find it.”


	3. Wilbur

The phantom hybrid hadn’t had a name for years at that moment.

He had forgotten everything five years ago.

He didn’t even have a family that could help him and care for him.

But the phantom was used to this by now, being alone and only ever interacting with another living thing when he was in his rage state when something around him was sleep-deprived.  
He would never stop himself from attacking and hurting the person.

Sometimes people would leave traps outside their windows so they could catch him and turn him in and gain something in return after he was slaughtered.  
Funny thing was that they always went to sleep after making the trap and setting it up.  
That never worked.

And that led to him being here, after being chased out of a seaside village and night falling, he sensed someone that was sleep-deprived and reduce himself to his feral state and was circling someone the entire night.

And here he was, face to face with the merling he had tried to attack thirty minutes earlier.

Niki sighed, rubbing her temples, “what's your name?” the teen blanked, staring into space as his mouth was left open, trying to form the sounds that would be his name.  
But nothing came out.

“Well...I’m Niki.” The phantom nodded, “good to know one of us knows our name..” the merling nodded.  
“Well, until I do, just call me phantom.” the merling nodded again, reaching out her hand for Phantom to shake it.

Phantom shook it and smiled a toothy grin, “now let's get moving!” Phantom began swimming in a random direction.  
“Moving where?” phantom didn't look behind him for a second.

“I heard a rumour from some people from a freakshow saw an Elytrian leave to form his own haven...” Phantom turned back to Niki, a smirk across his face.  
“And we're going to go find it.”

“Phantom, we don't even know if we're going in the right direction.” Niki swam ahead of Phantom, stopping him in his spot.

Phantom raised an eyebrow and looked Niki in the eyes, “Niki, if we don't find him, I'll let you bite me, but you've just gotta trust your instincts.”  
Phantom moved ahead again, Niki looking to him as she muttered something under her breath.  
‘My instinct is to survive and swim.’

|

The duo swam for hours before they finally came to land, and while Phantom relished in the thought of feeling ground beneath his feet.  
He saw that Niki couldn't go onto land like him, and instead was bound to the water.

“Oh....” Niki looked up at Phantom with a somewhat sad but not amused look in her eyes.  
“I can't continue.”

Phantom shook his head and began looking along the coast, maybe for a lake or river that Niki could travel through.  
There had to be a river somewhere.

And it wasn't hard to find it.  
“Over here, Niki.”

Niki was quick to swim over to where Phantom was and looked into the river with joyous eyes.  
They would travel down the river.

Phantom quickly punched down a tree, crafting some planks in his inventory and quickly making a crafting table so he could make a boat.  
Niki watched Phantom with wonder as he crafted, watching a boat come from seemingly nowhere.

“How did you do that?” Phantom placed the boat in the water and got in, looking down at Niki.  
“Do Merlings not have inventories?” Niki tilted her head and slowly shook it.

Phantom shook his head as well, reaching out his hand, “you have to focus on things you've collected or at least that helps me, think about a bunch of trinkets in the inventory.”  
Niki nodded and focused in on her hand, shaking a bit as she focused all her might into seeing if she had an inventory.

Then her eyes grew wide as she smiled, looking down at her hand like there was something there.

“You can place items as big as a boat in there.” Phantom laughed as Niki nodded.

And then they began rowing and swimming down the river.

A few aquatic animals travelled with them, swimming alongside Niki as she spoke to them in their little language, something Phantom could understand if he tried.  
He could only understand other phantoms.

The moon hung overhead the two as the night dragged on, good for Phantom, but it was leaving Niki slightly tired, but not enough that Phantom would attack her for it.  
It was peaceful along the river.

Trees towered on the sides of the river, a few mobs sometimes peaking out to look at them as they passed by, but only the skeletons ever seemed to try and take a shot at the two as they passed, somehow always missing.

Phantom smiled as he saw an Enderman looked out from behind a tree, and Phantom avoided its gaze, but still smiled at it as they passed before it ducked back behind a tree.  
Endermen were peaceful if they weren't stared directly at.

At one point, a group of about five lambs ran beside them, baaing at them as they passed, but soon they were lost by the current of the river that picked up.  
And in a turn of the river, Phantom and Niki entered into a swampy looking area.

Lily pads surrounded them, and a few trees stood up in the water around the swamp, offering a bit of cover for Phantom when the sun finally rose and broke free from the grasp of the night sky.

Niki eyed the flowers on the lily pads and quickly snatched one, placing it into her inventory, smiling at the other Lily’s that surrounded them in the swamp.

A few frogs hopped around, communicating with the others as they croaked and ribbeted.  
One even jumped into Phantom’s boat, leading him to scream and fall out of said boat, the frog quickly leaving as the phantom started cursing it out.  
Niki laughed as Phantom stood up in the water, a lily pad placed on his head as he shouted at the frog.

Neither heard the bowstring of a bow and arrow behind them as they both laughed.

“Filthy hybrids.” Both Phantom and Niki sounds around to see a villager with a bow pointed straight at Phantom.  
Niki ducked beneath water more, but looked up at Phantom with worry, seeing as he couldn’t just swim away.  
Looking to the sky, Niki breathed a sigh of relief as she saw clouds covering the sky instead of the playful blue.

But the man still held a arrow to her new friend.

“A phantom and a fish, one for supplies as the other for some food and decoration.” The man smirked as he got closer to the two.  
“Niki...” Phantom whispered to Niki, “swim away.”

The man growled, “swim and your little boyfriend dies.” Niki stayed in place.  
Phantom wasn’t her boyfriend, but she didn’t want him to die.

A few other villagers began to emerge from the forest on the other side of the swamp, carrying weapons and such.  
Like they were waiting for a catch.

“Come with us, or we’ll make it painful.”

And that’s how Niki and Phantom ended up being dragged along to a village that was going to kill them.  
Mobs stared at them as they passed, somehow less important than the two wild catches.

They passed an iron golem as they entered the village that looked down at them with pity and sadness.  
But it was in the golems genes to protect the villagers over everything.

Niki and Phantom passed many villagers.  
Most notable, a group around their age and a child.  
Niki studied each group this passed, but this one was the most peculiar.

One had bright orange eyes, two wore similar masks and had shining skin, and the last one had the same greyish skin as Wilbur.  
They were all hybrids.  
Niki saw the taller masked one direct the others towards the towns exit, looking back at Phantom and Niki as they left, a look of pity on his face.

They didn’t want to get killed as well.

There in the centre of the village was a guillotine, standing tall and proud with blood surrounding it.

“How about an example of what's going to happen to you?” the man with the arrow gestured towards the house next to it, and the villagers pulled a zombie hybrid from the house, dragging her over to the device as he screamed.

His head was placed in its spot, and a countdown was started, the village cheering at the terrified expression on the zombies face.

Phantom watched Niki squeeze her eyes shut, biting his lip as he watched what would happen to the poor hybrid.

“3”  
The zombie began to squirm around frantically, calling for help, but help would never come.

“2”  
Villagers started cheering for the hybrids death.

“1”  
The zombies eyes met with Phantoms.

And then they rolled towards him.  
The head of the zombie tumbled forward, eyes wide and glassy, but still blinking as it lay on the ground.  
It’s mouth moved to form any words, but no sound came, and then it went still.

“That’s what’s going to happen to you two.”  
Niki and Phantom shook as they stared at the head, blood gushing from it onto the ground, standing it red.

“How about the phantom first.” Someone began to pull Phantom towards the guillotine, and he felt his heart begin to race.  
He could hear Niki calling out to him behind her, but everything meshed together.

All he could hear was.  
“Kill the phantom! Slay the monster.”

Phantom struggled against the grip of his soon to be killer, but with no positive outcome.  
He was going to die here, in this small village surrounded by swamp.

The killer forced Phantom down onto his knees and began forcing his head towards the killing machine.

Then Phantom heard a swooping noise and shouting and screaming from the villagers.

Phantom looked up to see a winged man holding the head of their first captor, a bloodied sword in his other hand.

The man dropped the sword and head, “you two, come here.” Niki and Phantom nodded running over to the winged man.  
An elytrian or an avian.

The man grabbed both of their hands and held on tightly, flapping his wings and taking off, leaving the village below to become a small dot that was barely remembered.

Phantom looked up at the man and stared.  
This was the man that built the haven.  
The one that wither skeleton boy told him about.

And here he was, carrying the two to who knows where and-

“Niki needs water.” Phantom blurted out, and the man looked down at him and nodded, swooping down towards a lake.  
When close enough he dropped Niki in and flew over to the side of the lake.

Niki splashed around in the water, soaking up the fresh and nice water of the lake and diving below the surface.

“So, her names Niki? What's yours?” the man looked at Phantom, and Phantom tilted his head.  
“Yea, her names Niki...I don't have a name.” the man patted Phantom’s shoulders, looking down sadly,

“How does Wilbur sound?” Wilbur smiled and nodded, relaxing at last.

“I'm Phil.” Wilbur nodded, storing the name away into his memory so that it would always be there.

Phil looked out into the water as Niki drew closer “How old are you two?” 

“I’m sixteen.” Niki popped in, keeping under the water, happy and content.  
“And I'm twenty-one.” at least Wilbur thought.

Phil nodded and smiled, “well, I'm taking you both back home.”

“Home?” Niki tilted her head as she peered out of the water.

“Home.” Wilbur cemented, following Phil as they all began to travel down a river.


	4. Tubbo & Ranboo

They were young when they met.

Ranboo has been walking in an abandoned end city when he found Tubbo, guarding the remains of a long dead Elytrian.  
Tubbo at the time didn’t understand death, most shulks didn’t.

So Ranboo took Tubbo to his home, a home he himself had made.  
And they lived together for eight years before the five humans came.

The five humans came bearing weapons and shining purple armour and attacked the realms protector.

They attacked Ranboo’s species and took every shulkers away from their end cities and the Elytrain’s they tried so hard to protect.  
Tubbo and Ranboo didn't stay long enough to see what they did.

They killed the protector, and even if she did come back.  
Ranboo overheard them say that they would slay her again.

And the two ran for the portal to the human's world, desperate to escape the killing that would come to them if they stayed.

To them, the human world was dull, but they didn't experience it much as they started running avoiding villages and water.  
The second one wasn't always so easy.

And those events led up to now, where Ranboo was carrying Tubbo around as he slept in his box, tired after not sleeping for a few nights.  
Ranboo didn't need sleep.

The night sky hung overhead, not a cloud in sight, just the stars and the moon as Ranboo learned they were called from other endermen.  
They looked nice, and it brightened the boring human world.  
They didn't have crystal forests here.

Tubbo shifted slightly in his box, opening it to look up at Ranboo.  
“Are we always going to be walking?” Ranboo looked down at Tubbo and lowered his shoulders, nodded.  
“Probably Tubbo, I don't see how we can stop.” Tubbo looked down sadly and retreated into his box.

Ranboo stopped for a minute, thinking about their life before, how they were happy in the end.

Now here they were, running from their thoughts and fears.

Nowhere was safe here.

Ranboo looked ahead and teleported slightly, looking back at the ender particles he left behind.  
The last of what he was.

The trees hung over Ranboo and Tubbo, looking down at them as they continued forward.

Soon a sound came to Ranboo’s ears.

A rushing river.

Ranboo sighed and opened his inventory, holding Tubbo in one hand as he began to craft a boat from some spare logs he had leftover.  
The two emerged from the forest to a Riverside, remains of other boats along the edge, all left behind by various humans or hybrids.  
A few other mobs walked along the river, even a few endermen as Ranboo could see.

Across the river was a creeper hybrid and another Shulk.

Tubbo must have sensed the other shulk, as he instantly opened up his box and began shouting in shulk excitedly.  
The Shulk across the river turned his head and also started speaking in Shulk as the creeper hybrid laughed.

Ranboo set Tubbo down and began looking along the edges of the river to find a good place to place his boat in the water so he wouldn't get injured.

“So... you're running from the end?” Ranboo shot his head up to see the Creeper hybrid across from him.  
Ranboo nodded, “yeah...well, more the humans that invaded the end.” The creeper raised an eyebrow.

“They took the end?” Ranboo nodded and the creeper shook his head in disappointment.  
“Humans think they can take everything, that they're at the top, but they're just on the same level as the rest of us.”  
Ranboo nodded again, placing his boat along the edge, sure to keep away from the water.

“I'm Sam and the shulk over there is Ponk.” Sam looked towards the shulk that was still communicating with Tubbo.  
“I'm Ranboo, and that's Tubbo.” Ranboo pointed at Tubbo and Sam nodded.

Ranboo walked back over to Tubbo, Sam following along on the other side of the river.  
“Tub, we have to keep moving.” Tubbo stopped his speaking to look up at Ranboo and nodded, retreating back into his box so that Ranboo could pick up him.  
Ranboo did, And so did Sam across the river, picking Ponk up and placing him on his back.

Ranboo waved goodbye to Ponk and Sam, both doing the same as they walked into the tree line, disappearing from sight.

And so they continued, Ranboo placing Tubbo in the boat and getting in himself, pushing himself along the river.

|

They had been travelling for a full day by then.  
Ranboo rested his head in his hands, looking at the calm river ahead, Tubbo snoring lightly in his little box as he slept.  
A few endermen walked beside them sometimes, starting at them but never making eye contact.

Up ahead, the river opened up to a lake, wide as the eye could see.

The endermen stopped as Tubbo and Ranboo floated out into the lake, watching them as they faded away across the lake.

Ranboo didn't look behind him as he rowed forward, looking down at Tubbo every so often.  
Tubbo had climbed out of his box and was now sitting next to Ranboo, dwarfed by the Endermen’s height.

Small fish swam along with the boat, and Ranboo wished he could dip his hand in the water and touch them, but he learned the hard way after day one that he couldn't even if he wanted to. Water hurt him.

Tubbo leaned over the edge of the boat, staring at the fish and just reached down to skim the water.  
Tubbo could touch the water.  
Ranboo couldn't.  
A spark of envy flared in Ranboo’s chest.

As Ranboo looked down, Tubbo looked up and quickly pointed ahead.  
“Humans,” he whispered, diving back into his box as Ranboo scrambled to grab his cloak from his inventory and clip it on.  
Ranboo pulled the hood over his head as a small rowboat passed by.

He could see a couple and a child staring at him, the child pointing something out.

“Hey..kid?” the male of the couple set down the oars and looked at Ranboo. Ranboo didn't lookup.  
“Yea?”

“Are you an enderian?” Ranboo felt his heart stop, and the child quickly shouted something along the lines of ‘papa, you scared him!’

The man quickly shot his hands up, “oh, I'm sorry, you don't have to be scared, ” the man looked at his family, “we just want to help, offer shelter perhaps...?”

Ranboo looked for any sign of a lie in the man's eyes, a bit of restlessness growing as he did.  
He saw no lie.

And that's how Ranboo and Tubbo ended up here, staring down at a hot bowl of soup as a desperate mother tries to catch a flying parrot hybrid.  
The child, Cricket, flew around the living room, laughing with delight as their mother chased after them.

Tubbo laughed as Karrie came stumbling into the kitchen, having been unsuccessful in her capture attempts.

Rich laughed from where he was baking some bread on the furnace, the smell poisoning the air with it's delightful smell.

“So, you two were running from the humans that killed your protector?” Ranboo nodded, and Tubbo made an ‘mhm’ in agreements.  
“Gee, I knew us humans were bad, but to kill another dimensions protector seems immoral.” Rich placed a plate on the counter, slicing some bread for Cricket.

“If you both are humans, how did you have Cricket?” Tubbo asked, grabbing onto his box as Cricket held it up.

Karrie sat down at the table and smiled, “We found them in a tree, their mother was dead already...” the two other hybrids looked at each other and nodded.  
“Humans are the worst.” Rich and Karrie made noises of agreement with Ranboo.

“Y’know...” Rich turned around to face the boys, “two and a half weeks ago, a swamp village nearby captured two hybrids and tried to execute them, but an Elytrian came in and saved the two...” Tubbo perked up when he heard of the Elytrian.  
“And?” Ranboo tilted his head.

“He took them both away, apparently claiming he was going to take them to a safe place.” Ranboo and Tubbo’s eyes lit up like candles.  
“Where can we find him!?” Tubbo slammed his hands onto the table, eyes wide with excitement.

“Actually, he was said to go down a river nearby, nig the river you came from, but one closer to a swamp.” Karrie smiled as the two boys lit up with excitement, talking over each other in their words.  
“We are planning to get Cricket there when they're older so they could live a better life than what will be offered in any village.” 

|

The next day the two left, waving goodbye to the family as they faded away, walking back towards the lake and the river.

Ranboo had his clock up, Tubbo in his hands already.

A boat waited for them.

Ranboo hopped in and placed Tubbo next to him and began rowing out in the directions that Karrie had given them.

The lake was bright and blue, the fish hopping in and out of it as they played the games that they always played, so happy to be touching the water.  
Tubbo peaked out from his box and watched as five brightly coloured fish hoped out of the water and splashed back down, actually giving light to the boring world of the humans.

The Lily pads were pushed away as the two began moving towards a river, flowers gracing its edges as they began down its rapids.  
Ranboo felt the pain of the water hitting him while Tubbo felt the water hitting his box, and he laughed at the feeling of the water on his back.  
Ranboo wanted to laugh with him, but it honestly hurt as they went down the river.

The trees grew thicker and thicker, and the brush in their path also kept getting thicker. Ranboo thought it felt like they were travelling to another world.  
While Tubbo felt as though they were being blessed by some unseen force.

And they emerged in a peaceful lake again.

A house stood on the other side, along with a few towers built here and there around the house.

There were a few paths in the lake, forming a pattern and seeming stable enough for a few people.

Ranboo lowered his clock hood and nudged Tubbo out of the box.

Tubbo ran up to the front of the boat, looking over the haven that they seemed to have reached, eyes glinting with happiness as he felt the presence of an Elytrian.

Ranboo felt breathless as he looked around.  
Just now was he noticing a farm just beyond the treeline, and several shaded areas around the house.

Tubbo looked own and stumbled back.  
“Someones under the water!” he shouted, and Ranboo pushed him off his lap where he had stumbled, and looked over the edge himself.  
A girl was there, tilting her head at him and smiled.

And she popped her head up.

“Hello!” the girl giggled as Ranboo tried to form some words.  
Tubbo ran over to the edge again.

“Is there an Elytrian here? I can sense them!” the girl nodded and pulled a device from her inventory.  
She typed something in and smiled up at the two.

“Come to land, I know Endermen can't get wet.” 

Ranboo and Tubbo were directed to land and sat on the beach, talking to the merling, Niki, about this place.  
Niki didn't have many answers.

“Niki? Who's down there?” all three kids looked up to a looming figure in the sky.  
Tubbo immediately became ecstatic, waving up to the flying figure, which Ranboo now assumed was a Elytrian.

The man landed and Tubbo immediately waddled over, circling the man as the man simply laughed.  
“It has been a while since I've seen a Shulk or Enderian.” The man smiled at Ranboo and Tubbo.

“Welcome to Haven you two.”


	5. Schlatt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about any inaccuracies.

“And have a great day everyone, remember, god loves you all.” Schlatt waved goodbye to the people leaving the church.

Families exited, all talking amongst themselves about the words that had left Schlatt’s mouth that day.

Schlatt himself would leave soon, and then he would go home to relax.

The only reason he took up this job was so he could relax for once.

Schlatt rubbed his forehead, feeling his extra eyes under his hair,, always excusing the thin slits as scars that he had gotten from a skeleton.  
An easy lie.

“Mama, why was Father Fragrance saying that stuff about hybrids?” Schlatt paused, seeing a child leaving with his family, the mother looking back at him with a thankful look.  
“The hybrids are satan's creations and need to be killed for us to be safe.” Schlatt felt himself twist up.

He had talked on Saturday about hybrids at a party celebrating the anniversary of the mayor's term and had said something about hybrids belonging somewhere else.  
He meant that they didn't deserve to be treated this way by humans and deserved a better place.  
Apparently, his messages were twisted.

“But Mom, they're just a bit different than us.” an older girl placed a hand on the mother's shoulder and her mother made a quick move to slap the hand away.  
“God didn't create those creatures from hell.”

“But God made everything beautiful, and says we have to love our neighbour.” the mother hushed the little boy.  
“Sammy, some things diverge from God's plan and-” the voices finally faded away from Schlatt’s hearing.

Schlatt hate when people cherry-picked just for their agenda.

He felt bad for those poor children.

|

Schlatt unlocked his door and pushed in, closing it behind him and settling against it.  
It was dark out, and Schlatt felt hungry.

He pushed himself off of the door and moved towards his kitchen, smelling meat before he even stepped on the cold oak floors.

Schlatt pushed open an icebox and pulled out a piece of steak and quickly ate it raw.  
It fed him for the night.

*knock knock*

Schlatt closed all his eyes and mined back over to the door, hearing at least six voices behind it.

He reached for the doorknob and opened it, seeing five kids from the church and an older man and woman.

“Hello, Father Fragrance.” the man smoked at the arachnid.

“My nephews and nieces wanted a more in-depth explanation of your hybrid speech you made yesterday.” Schlatt sighed and stepped to the side.  
“Come on in, I'm always eager to explain things.” 

The children came in first, followed by the adults.  
“Come to the living room.” Schlatt directed them towards his living room and the kids sat down on the couch, while the adults took the floor.  
Schlatt moved a chair across from them.

“Well, tell me your names first.” the smallest boy raised his hand, and Schlatt pointed at him.  
“I’m Sammy, but I really like being called Samantha.” the little boy wore a nice blue dress.

This was the same boy from the church.  
“And I'm his older sister, Gillian.” Gillian kept a tight arm around Samantha.

Schlatt pointed to a kid wearing a red dress shirt, “I’m...Foxy.” the child was soft-spoken and lowered their head.  
“And Jack!” a boy next to them raised his hands and frantically waved them.

The last kid stood up to speak, “and I'm Flora.” The girl sat back down and smoothed out her suit.

Schlatt nodded then looked towards the two adults, the woman stood up first, “The names Danny, I'm the cool aunt.” she sat down and Samantha immediately went and crawled into her lap.  
“I’m Liam, ” The man patted Foxy’s head.

Schlatt nodded, “well, you all know me, so what is it you want to know?”  
Samantha raised his hand.

“Why do people hate hybrids?” Schlatt sighed and moved from his chair and sat down in front of Samantha.

“Humans hate difference, whether God made it or not, or they're far too gone in their bigotry.” Samantha nodded and then Gillian raised her hand.  
“Why did you say they belonged somewhere else?” 

Schlatt sighed, “I meant that they didn't deserve the hate humans gave them and belonged in a safer place for them.” Gillian nodded.  
“Are you a hybrid?” Jack shouted out, and Schlatt sputtered in surprise.

“You are!” Jack cried in delight, hopping over to Liam and waving his arms around.  
“How did....?” 

Jack pointed to Schlatt’s forehead, “one of your eyes was showing.” 

Schlatt touched his head and just noticed one of his eyes opened and looking around.

The children immediately began asking other questions, and Schlatt raised his hands.  
He was ready to answer them all.

|

It became a tradition that every weekend after church, the kids, Liam, and Danny would come over, Danny and Liam sometimes bringing their wife and husband.  
Schlatt would tell them about different hybrids that he knew about, and the kids would make up a game for them all to play in the woods.

This week was ‘spider and the chickens’.

Schlatt chased the ‘chickens’ who were just the kids.

He didn't really like children at first, but hanging out with children that didn't immediately scream and cry when they saw him was a relief.  
These children didn't hate hybrids.

Foxy ran up ahead, shouting and laughing as Schlatt stalked them down through the trees.

Foxy looked behind them to look at Schlatt, but quickly fell over their feet and landed headfirst into the ground.  
But they laughed as they stood up, Schlatt placing a spider web on their head.  
“Hunt down the other chickens for their blood.” Foxy nodded and ran off, disappearing into the trees.

Schlatt scrambled back up a tree, sniffing the tree bark.  
He smelt something he shouldn't.

He smelt blood.

Schlatt hopped down from the tree and hid his features, walking towards the smell of blood.

It became thicker and thicker, messing up his senses as he tried to pinpoint where it was coming from.

Soon it was all that he could smell, and he came into a small clearing where blood stained the trees.

Samantha lay in the middle, the blood coming straight off of her.

An arrow was stuck out of her chest.

Samantha was dead.

A man stood on the other edge of the clearing, eyes wide at the body.

“Father Fragrance, I caugh-” Foxy stopped as soon as they saw Samantha laying in the clearing, and Gillian was close behind them.  
Foxy dropped to their knees and screamed while Gillian ran up to the body.

Schlatt’s eyes were locked on the man across the clearing.  
He felt himself lose any control and ran towards the man.

When he came to again, he was covered in blood and the entire family surrounded Samantha's body.

And then he stood at a funeral, a small casket being lowered into the ground, Danny and Liam crying.  
The children sat far away, sobbing in each other's shoulders, all grieving the loss of the youngest.

That weekend was silent, with no games or talking.  
Schlatt packed up his stuff, getting ready to leave town.  
The hunter was there because he heard of an arachnid.  
That was him.

He caused the death of a small child.

And what would the hunter benefit from killing him?  
Getting a spider eye?  
Some string?

A knocking came from the front door, and Schlatt lowered his head.  
It was Danny and her wife.

“Hey...Father Fragrance...” Danny sighed and held out a small gift box, turning around and leaving.

“I'm sorry about her, she blames herself for not keeping a better eye on Samantha.” Schlatt nodded, “it's alright.”

Schlatt left that night, moving towards the cliffs and far away from the village that he caused grief.

The gift box was left unopened as Schlatt travelled.

The forests were thick and full of mobs, but Schlatt passed them, kissing at him as he passed and biting other mobs when he needed the food.  
He didn't care at this point.

Schlatt sat in a camp, holding the box in his hand.

A fire was lit in front of him, and he felt tempted to throw the box in to finally leave his past, but he didn't.  
He opened the box for the first time.

Inside was a parchment with a drawing on it.

It was the family as various types of hybrids and him, drawn in a crude and unprofessional fashion.  
A child's drawing.

Gillian was an Elytrian.  
Liam was a Blazeborn.  
Foxy was a Fox.  
Danny was a parrot.  
Flora was a Florian.  
Jack was an Enderian.  
And Samantha was an arachnid.

Schlatt clenched the paper, crumbling it and thrown it into the edge of the fire, watching it as it started to burn.  
Then he grabbed it again, putting the fire out on the paper and opening it again.

He was burnt out of the picture and a small burn mark was over Samantha's chest.

Schlatt sighed a put the paper in his pocket and abandoned camp, moving forward without looking back at the fire.

He was alone, and he always would.  
“Why shouldn't I be fucking alone!” he shouted, raising his arms and scaring a few birds away with his voice.  
“WHY AM I FUCKING ALIVE?!”

“Sir...do you need mental or physical help?” Schlatt looked down and lowered his arms.  
Ahead was a shulk, staring at him like he was crazy.  
Well, he was, but who was he to talk.

“Go away, kid.” the Shulk shook his head.  
“You're coming with me.“

A small bullet came flying at Schlatt, hitting him. Schlatt starts feeling a sense of weightlessness and a bit of pain from where the bullet hit him.  
The shulk laughed and tied a lead around his foot, and began leading him away, hitting him with a bullet every thirty seconds.

Schlatt couldn't even argue against it, and just had to be led by the small Shulk, pulling him through very thick brush and even thicker trees.

The shulk seemed quite content as he dragged him along.

A few wooden pillars started appearing, and Schlatt raised an eyebrow at them, but the shulk seemed unconcerned at the various wooden pillars.  
Then the woods opened up to an open area with a huge lake.

A merling hopped in and out of the water, a phantom standing under cover near the merling.  
An Elytrian flew overhead, an Enderian in his arms.

Only hybrids and mobs in this little lake.

“C’mon, let's bring you home.” Schlatt didn't ask as he was dragged towards a wooden house, the other mons following behind as he was unknowingly welcomed to the family.


	6. Tommy

T-70334.

That's all he has ever seen known as.

T-70334.

The boy hated it, but it's all he's ever known.  
All he has ever known has been being shipped off to different nations to be experimented on and tortured for the same of ‘history and science’.

It was none of that.

And here he waited in line with the only other avians to exist at this time.  
Ten avians that exist.

The only ones.  
And he was the youngest.

T-70334 wasn't stupid, he knew what was about to happen.  
And he wanted to run, to fly away with his wings.

But he couldn’t.

Most people would place avians in the same place as other bird hybrids, but what made avians special was their past.  
They were reincarnations of gods, all the people in the line were gods.

Q-26179 was the reincarnation of the God of harvest and war.  
He was the only one T-70334 talked to.  
He said that he was out in the world before, and had two lovers.

A blazeborn and a merling.

T-70334 relished in these stories.  
But now Q-26179 was ahead of him, ready to have his wings clipped and cut off.

T-70334 was the reincarnation of the God of childhood and chaos.  
He wished he had never been born though.

He wanted to be free, he wanted to be able to fly with the clouds and the sky.

“Q-26179.” T-70334 watched as he entered the room, and he stepped forward, a stone growing and taking over his heart.  
He couldn't hear the screams or any cries for help.

The room was soundproofed.

T-70334 gulped and felt tears prick at his eyes.

He was alone in the room that leads to the chamber, all the older having already gone in.  
The thirteen-year-old wanted to collapse and die.

“T-70334.” the door opened, and T-70334 gagged at the smell of iron and metal, feeling a rush of warm air hitting him.

And he entered.

The room was covered in blood and feathers, torn pieces of muscle and flesh lying around like it was casual.

A man stood in the room holding a netherite axe in his hand and a smirk on his face.  
T-70334 felt dread build up in him.

He was pushed to the ground, struggling as the surgeon got closer, and then blinding white pain.  
T-70334 quickly passed out from being unable to handle the pain which shot through him at breakneck speeds.

When he woke up again, he screamed.  
His back felt as though it had been torn apart then stitched back together, then had gotten an infection that wasn't treated for months.  
T-70334 felt as though he was dying as he screamed for someone, anyone.

He got no one that day as he screamed through it all.

No comfort.  
No hope.  
And no chance of escape.

He woke up again the next day, the pain still seeping into his shoulder blades.  
But he didn't cry or scream that day.

So they took it as a chance to guide him through the halls and bring him up to the top floor.  
And took him to a platform.

Below was Q-26179, starting up at him with bandages wrapping around his torso.

T-70334 leaned over the edge and felt a kick to his back, leaving him falling towards the ground.

But he wasn't.

He was slowly floating down towards the ground, down towards Q.  
T felt scared that he was gliding down.  
But he was just happy to be alive.

He glided down to the ground, Q waiting for him and running up to him when he landed, giving him a squeezing hug.  
T patted Q’s back, looking back up at the people above them.

There was blood on the walls and the ground.  
“The last two Avians should now be released for more experimentation.”

T let go of Q and felt himself fall apart.  
“Last...two...avians?” 

Q looked down and nodded.  
“None of them could glide like us.” T fell to his knees as he thought of the other eight avians all dying from falling, just for the experiments they've always participated in.

The wall behind the two began opening up, and T could just make out blue sky and cliffs around the facility.

Q grabbed T’s hand and began running, T not hesitating to follow as they both ran towards the door.  
Nothing happened with the scientists.

Q looked back but T didn't, not wanting to look out as he was hit with a wave of fresh air.

They ran towards the cliffs and Q let go of T’s hand.  
“Run the opposite direction, they can't get us together!” T nodded and ran in the opposite direction of Q, watching him fade away from his sight and memory as he began climbing up a cliff wall, just seeing Q turn a corner and finally vanish.

T sighed, knowing he's probably wouldn't ever see Q again with their circumstances.  
T reached over the edge of the cliff and pulled himself up and began running, pushing past tree branches and bushes as he tried to escape his captors, the people that had yet him for so long.

But he felt a longing in his chest to return to them.  
But he couldn't.  
He only wanted to.  
But he would die if he did.

T tripped over a long but quickly pushed himself back up and continued running, not daring to stop or look back. T felt as though he could hear the arrows and the potions.  
But he knew he didn’t.

It was all his imagination.  
Like he could be a child again.

T paused and looked around him.  
Then started laughing.  
His chest ached as he laughed, the laughter burning his lungs as he finally let it control him, the laughter fueling him as he lay on the soft grass.

T travelled for days afterwards, laughing and laughing as he travelled, ignoring any village he came across.  
He was probably a legend at this point, a cryptid.

Hummingbirds followed him wherever he went, treating him like he was still a humming id and not an imposter without its wings.  
He felt happy and accepted.  
He felt a fuzzy feeling deep in his chest.

T travelled for days before coming to a river, seeing an abandoned camp on the other side.

T crossed the river and looked over the camp.  
A barely burning fire remained, just embers as it blew itself out.

T stared at the fire and laughed.  
He was always laughing now.

He laughed as he moved away from the camp and towards a more dense part of the forest, pushing past the bushes and the ha going leaves that blocked his path, feeling a phantom pair of wings behind him that fluttered with content.  
Flowers brushed past his face as he moved onwards.

Then he opened up into a lake, along with a few buildings in the distance.  
T tilted his head and began moving down towards the lake.

Then he heard a loud splash and saw a large fish swimming away like she was fearful.

He tilted his head to the other side and looked up.

A large looming figure was overhead.  
A wingged figure.

Maybe it was Q, or another Avian that managed to escape the clutches of the scientists.  
Whatever it was, T passed out from exhaustion.

When T woke up again, a man was looming over him, holding a towel in his hands.  
“Hello?” T could barely hear his voice as he looked up at the man.

“Hello.” the man placed the towel on T’s shoulder, and T felt stinging in his back and shoulder.  
T winced.

“Sorry, you had an infection when you got here...” T nodded as the man placed another rag on his other shoulder and left them to soothe his wounds.

The man looked down at T with a pity stare.  
“What's your name?”

“T-70334.” The man shook his head and places a hand on T’s chest.  
“Does Tommy sound better?” Tommy nodded, feeling comfort in the touch.

Tommy moved his eyes and looked out past the man, seeing a few other people gathered at the doorway, all staring in at him.  
Not that fish though.  
“I'm Phil.” Tommy nodded up at Phil, feeling a sense of confusion and weakness.  
“Where’s Q?” Tommy tried to sit up but was gently pushed down by Phil.

“Who’s Q?” Tommy looked at Phil like her was a complete and utter idiot.

Tommy felt his throat scratching, “Q and I are the only Avians left...” Phil’s eyes immediately grew wide, and he shooed the other people away from the door.  
Like it was an event.

“I thought you may have been another Elytrian with your scars, but an Avian...I thought those went extinct years ago.” Phil sat down next to Tommy again.  
“Who are you a reincarnation of?”it was a simple question.  
“The God of Childhood and Chaos.” Phil nodded, writing down the information on a random piece of paper, “and Q?”  
“War and the harvest.” Phil nodded again, the scribbling of the quill evident.

“Now get some rest Tommy.”

Tommy nodded and faded off to sleep.  
A peaceful sleep.

For once in his life.


	7. Jack

The nether was the warmest realm.

And it was also Jack Manifolds home.

A blazeborn in the nether, who would've thought.

Many people thought he was human, for some reason that he doesn't know.

He just lives by the rules of the nether and ignores them, hiding away in the little home he had made himself.

He was nothing but normal.

And he enjoyed that.

But the day that those humans came into his fortress and tried to take the hoglins and piglins hostage, he stood up for them.  
And was promptly kidnapped.  
Along with all the piglins and hoglins.

It wasn't his smartest idea, but he's done worse.  
Like pushing a child into lava.  
In his defence, he had only seen things that could withstand the lava and not immediately die.  
He was also eight.

R.I.P random child number 25.

But now, here he sat, in a dark cage with nothing to see.  
He was the only light source for the creatures in the cage besides another blazeborn on the other side of the cage.

“So....you come here often?” Jack spoke in Blazeborn so only the other blazeborn could understand him.

“Piss off.” Jack nodded.  
“That's fair.”

It was all silent again.

“What are they going to do to us?” he heard low murmurs, and the other blaze born sighed.  
“Well, for me and the ‘hero’ their gonna kill us for our rods after selling us, for you guys, slave labour.” several of the children began crying into their parent's shoulders.

“Dick move dude.” The other blazeborn just shrugged.  
“It's what they did to my lovers.” the Blazeborn looked at the wall next to him, “one was an avian, and I'm certain he's dead, the others a merling, he'd be sushi by now.”  
“They also took my dads from here as well, so yea, humans will get their grimy hands in anything they want and will whine until they have it.”  
Jack nodded, pursing his lips as the Blazeborn ranted in Blazeborn.

“That's rough buddy.”   
The blazeborn nodded and closed his eyes, his fire dimming signalling that he had fallen asleep.

Or he died.

Jack hoped it was the first option.  
But the second option was more possible.

Oh well.

Circle of fire.

Jack laid his head down and listened and watched the panicked hoglins and piglins take care of their young.

He started to question what he was then.

|

He sat in a cage, watching a poor axolotl hybrid named Tommy crying in his tank, shaking with every sob.  
His brothers sat in a cage across from the poor axolotl hybrid, watching him bleed from the cuts that he had all over his body.

It was disgusting.  
Tommy was six.

Wilbur was eight, and Technoblade was eleven.  
They were torturing children, for fun.

It was vile.

Jack felt his rods dim over the month he had been here, an he hated everything about the feeling.

Jack bit his lip as he watched a passed out Elytrian getting dragged in from the tent and thrown back into his cage beside wil and tech.  
The man was bleeding in all the wrong places.  
By that, Jack meant he was bleeding everywhere.

The smell of blood flooded Jack's senses and he gagged, watching as Wil and Tech did the same.

The man's wings twitched, but he remained unconscious.

Two weeks later was when Tommy told him.  
“Hey...Mr.Fire?”  
Tommy had called him that since he got here.

“Can you pass on something to W and T?”  
“Yea, what do you need?” Jack leaned in closer to Tommy.

“There's a hole in the tent, tell them so they can tell Mr. Feathers.” Jack nodded and moved to the edge of his cage.

“Hey.” Wilbur and Technoblade looked up.  
And Jack told them what Tommy had told them.  
So when the Elytrian came back, they told him.

And that day, he was free.

They all watched him look back with sadness as he flew into freedom.  
Jack didn't mind.  
It just meant one less person would suffer through hell.

And then a phantom came that same night, and Wilbur had happily talked about the Elytrian’s escape, and how he and overheard him wanting to build a haven for hybrids like them.

The next day, there were three children blood on the ground, and three little bodies left rotting away in the middle of the tent.  
An example.

Tommy was the closest to Jack, and he had to look at those dead brown eyes every day.

Until he was shipped out to fishermen so they could catch glow squid.

They would use his rods as bait.

He was sold for five bags of coins and was lead away.  
Too close to water.

He sat on the docks, chained as he watched boats come as go, some coming off with merlings that we're still begging for mercy.

When his crew came back, the youngest, Eret, had holes where his once beautiful white eyes were.  
They had been stabbed out.

Herobrines' children were much more accepted than any other hybrid.  
But Eret showed kindness and untied Jack and let him run free before running off himself to who knows where.

Jack ran for days on end before running into a parrot hybrid.

“Why are you running?” the child had asked and Jack had stopped staring at the feathers on the child's back and head.  
He stayed with the child that night.

“Did you know that the stars were all named after mythologies and legends?” Cricket stared up at the sky and Jack nodded, smiling as the child began to share more and more about the stars.  
Which then turned into how much they loved glow squids.

“They glow, and they make noises that sound like little bells.” Jack had never heard a squid, but he enjoyed hearing about how the parrot happily talked bout them.

The sun rose quickly, and Cricket left after giving Jack instructions that may or may not have been wrong.  
They also gave him a feather that he quite enjoyed.

And he began moving again, passing through trees and hopping over streams and rivers, his journey was weird.

And it hurt when if rained.

Jack hated the rain.

Jack walked under the tree cover, travelling through a valley and noticing something in the distance.

A small memorial.

Jack kept his distance as he looked over the memorial, read in the name.

‘Samantha Pines’  
‘Six years old’  
‘You deserved the world, little sister-Gillian Pines’

Jack felt an aching in his heart and threw one of his rods at the memorial, it always meant a sign of goodwill and happiness for Blazeborns.

And he continued.  
Jack shivered as he finally felt the urge and need for fire or lava.  
And there was none around.  
He hadn't had it for so long.

It felt terrible.

Jack was so deep in a headache that he didn't even notice that he had tripped and fallen into the ground.  
Jack pushed himself up and looked back before screaming and moving away.

A decomposing body of a female with stubs on her back and her body drained of blood, eyes hollow as she stared at Jack.

Jack ran after that, running towards a point that he didn't even know if it existed.  
He wanted to go back home.

And as he climbed down a hole and ran into a cave system, he finally felt the call to fire.  
And found the portal.

For the first time in months, he was home.

He fell to his knees as he felt the fire and lava surround him as he felt the tears slip down his cheeks, the lava mixing with the lava below him.

And he lived like that for a few more weeks.  
Hiding away from humans.  
Having nightmares.  
Interacting with neither mobs again.  
He felt complete.

So when he saw hybrids from the overworld again, he was conflicted.  
They were from the same world as humans, but we're subject to the same torment.

Jack watched them as they travelled, making peaceful trades with the hoglins, petting the striders as they passed, and only fighting if the mobs had attacked first.

They were peaceful to his home and realm.

He watched the winged one with the most interest, watching him fly above and point out netherite to the other hybrids.  
The phantom also looked familiar.  
The shulk and the enderian seemed to match Cricket’s description.

Jack soon lost interest and went off to find his own netherite.  
Why wouldn't he?  
Extra protection against humans.

Jack tore through the nether and found himself one block of netherite and quickly began mining away at the mineral, humming as he tried to break it.

He didn't even hear something sneaking up behind him.

“Hello?” Jack jumped and swing his sword wildly, pointing it in the direction finally to see the boy from earlier in the hybrid groups just standing there with a netherite pickaxe.

“What the fuck do you want?” Jack backed away and the boy shrugged.  
Jack took another step back as the child looked at something invisible in his hand.

And then there was a blue pickaxe and sword.  
Better than his gold tools.

Jack picked up the tools and looked at the boy.  
“Uh...thanks?”  
The child nodded.  
“I noticed you were probably gathering to protect yourself from humans, Right?” Jack nodded, storing away the tools in his bag.

“Cool.” the children left, jumping off the side of a ledge and gliding back down towards the group, waving to them as he went down.

Jack watched them all as they walked away.  
As just then did he realize the Elytrian was Mr. Feathers.

The man that escaped to build a supposed haven.

Jack felt conflicted, then abandoned that and jumped down into the lava below, following the group to wherever they are heading.  
Jack followed them through a forest to a portal and watched as they all went in one by one.  
He followed them.

He followed them until they came to this ‘haven’.

He watched as a merling came to the surface of the water to greet the group, smiling as she was handed an item by the phantom and the enderian.

They all seemed happy here.

All wihoutt a worry.

It was nice.

The child waved goodbye and headed off towards a bunch of raised platforms, yawning as he left and climbed up the towers towards the many, many platforms that seemed to form a sky city.

Another young and small boy walked off somewhere else, taking a box with him and leaving.

The enderian left to a house that was nearly and entered, not coming back out.

A spider man passed by and looked around before wandering off again with a bottle in his hand.

The Merling dove under again, a splash following her.

The phantom left to a small house in the distance.

And that left the Elytrian and Him.

The Elytrian looked back at him and smiled.  
“You're from the freak show.” Jack flinched and nodded.

“Well, welcome to our home.” The Elytrian looked towards the sunset.

“You're welcome to stay ‘Mr.Fire’.”


	8. To the years that follow

And all was peaceful.

Jack and Tommy would travel through the nether and fight to strengthen each other.

Niki built a lagoon that travelled deep underwater into an underground cave filled with water and axolotls.

Wilbur learned to control his bloodlust around sleep-deprived people.

Phil adopted Tommy and Wilbur.

Schlatt stood ankle-deep in grief, but was always pulled out by the family at cared for him.

Tubbo built his own little reminders of home, leaning his head against the walls.

Ranboo wandered off a lot.

And soon he came back with a slime two years after he had arrived.

Charlie was brought into the family then.

And more and more people came.  
Familiar and not.

They were all welcomed.

Tommy finally met Q’s lovers.  
Ranboo and Tubbo met up with Cricket, Ponk, and Sam again.  
Niki finally found her saviour that night on the water, and they considered themselves family then.  
Jack finally learned more about the other Blazeborn when he arrived.  
Wilbur met another phantom like him.  
And Schlatt finally saw the growth of the children he had left years ago and what they had become.

Phil always overlooked them, smiling at the people that were still alive, sometimes met with the ghosts of the past that looked down upon them as well.  
One child always wanted to hear about Schlatt and how he was doing.  
That was Samantha.

Phil often saw the three children in the corner of his eyes, but they never greeted him.  
They lived in the past and will live happily in the place that is above the future.

The haven grew and grew, becoming a small city filled with hybrids and one big happy family.

Phil, the same year Charlie entered the home, found an orphaned piglin hybrid and adopted him as well.  
That was Technoblade.

And in the third year, he renamed the haven to something different.

Origins.

The origins of peace for so many people.

The origins of a family of dozens.  
This was their home.

They built it up.  
They'll watch it grow.

And when the time comes, they'll die in its walls and its peaceful presence.


	9. And then we will die happy

The first to go was Tommy.

The youngest of all of them was riddled with infections and disease and never fully recovered from the illnesses.

Tommy had already been through a lot, having seen almost all of his kind being slaughtered and being through all sorts of hell and laughing at death in the face.

Phil had adopted him quickly and named him after the sickly Axolotl boy that had helped him.  
To honour him.

Tommy died when he was twenty-six, smiling as he held onto Phil’s hand as Tubbo, Quackity, Techno, Wilbur, Niki, Schlatt, Jack, Ranboo, and Charlie.  
They all cried as his blue eyes went glassy and his chest went still.

They buried him and gave him an honourable funeral.  
Almost everyone showed up.

The ones that hadn't would be to mourn his death.

Dream and his sister Drista, two glass golem hybrids, left two flowers on the grave from their own collection.

Phil had stood over the cliff gazing down at the bustling city and saw Tommy’s ghost wandering the streets.  
He was a child, one no older than five, wings weighing on his little back.

The child always gravitated towards Quackity and tried to hug him sometimes.  
It was a miserable sight.

Then it was Niki.

Niki had crawled up onto shore fifteen years after Tommy’s death and had laid in the sun just a bit too long.

She was found by Karl, another merling who immediately told everyone else.

She had a smile on her face and her eyes were wide open, staring at nothing.

Niki was mourned greatly by those that knew her.  
And for once Jack was able to hold his best friend's hand as he wept for the loss.

They had to leave him be for several nights after that.

Niki was buried next to Tommy.

Her funeral was attended by the masses, and her grave was covered in some clay coral so she would always have it in the afterlife.

Phil saw that she did.

Niki wore a crown of coral as she walked and swam around the city, interacting with Tommy often and acting as though he was her little brother.  
She often tried to interact with Eret.

Eret always noticed her and Tommy and hugged them both and shook with tears as they disappeared.

Spiders don't have a long lifetime, so three years later was finally Schlatt’s turn.  
And he was happy for that day.

Schlatt was found in a cocoon of spider webs, resting as though he was asleep.  
The only way you could tell he wasn't was his pale skin and unmoving chest.

Samantha's family held a private funeral and buried him next to Samantha back in their home village.

No one but the family would attend Schlatt’s funeral.

Phil saw Schlatt walking and talking with Samantha’s ghost along the streets, pointing out different shops and places so that Samantha wouldn't get lost.

Phil felt it warm his chest as he saw Schlatt embrace Samantha as if she was his daughter.

Then Jack finally went out.

He had travelled to the nether for no reason and never returned.

He went through a lot and ended up never being found by any normal human.

Sapnap found him buried away in a lava lake.

Two years after his death, Jack was buried next to Niki, gravestone decorated with flames and fireballs.

A small flame was always lit on his grave.

His ghost was always near Niki’s or Tommy’s.

Phil could still hear them all call themselves the misfit gang.  
He wished they would come back.

Ranboo was next.

Water was deadly to Endermen, and Ranboo had been out in the ocean a bit too long for his comfort.

Ranboo was found by Tubbo curled up on the beach, resting face with a bit of water damage.

Tubbo cried over the body before Phil and Wilbur found him and patted his back.

Ranboo was buried next to Tommy, grave covered in dirt blocks and flowers.

Many people visited Ranboo.  
Whether new or old.

Most of the older citizens were dying by now.

Phil watched Ranboo laugh at the others as a few other ghosts joined them, such as Quackity, Sam, Ponk, and Alyssa.

They were happy and he began to grow older.

Wilbur was next.

Wilbur was floating around.  
Then just dropped.

Wilbur lay on the ground as Phil mourned his eldest son, falling to his knees as his son rested with a peaceful face along with the stones of the ground.  
Phil carried Wilbur home just to carry him one last time.

Phil decorated Wilbur’s funeral and gravestone with music and sleep.  
Phil cried as Techno patted his back.

Phil watched Tommy and Wilbur fly together and try and race each other around.

And finally, it was Tubbo’s turn to die.

A hundred and fifty-six years after the last death, Tubbo fell to illness and lay dying next to Phil, starting up at the sky with small eyes and a tight grip.  
Tubbo smiled and his eyes went clear.

Phil hugged the bit as he finally went cold for the first time in his life, his shulker box dulling in colour as the life left his body.

Few people attended Tubbo’s funeral, decorated with boxes and bees.

Tubbo’s ghost loved to hang around Ranboo’s and Tommy’s ghosts as they all laughed and ran like they were kids and alive again.

Phil, two hundred years later, all he loved dead, sat on the hill and watched his city grow.  
All its original members were dead, but him.

Techno was dead. Callahan was dead. Connor was dead. Karl was dead. Sapnap was dead.

All of them were dead.

So here Phil sat, old and lonely on top of the hill he had sat on so many times to look at their happy faces and the laughter that spread across their faces.

Tears slipped from his eyes as he finally waited for his time to come.

And it did.

Phil felt nothing but the grass beneath him as he fell, the soft green consuming him as his eyes opened to pure white.

Nothing, but everything.

He heard the laughter and saw their smiles running towards him.

And then it was them.

He felt their arms wrap around him and squeeze.  
“Phil, we've been waiting!” Tommy cried, hugging Phil’s chest.

Phil looked beyond the family to see a city-building itself, ghosts wandering throughout the city.

“What is this?” Phil felt tears in his eyes as he finally saw the kids again.  
And Schlatt.

Ranboo smiled and patted Phil’s back, “ghosts need to move one from something, and this is what's beyond..” Phil slid Ranboo’s hand away.  
“What did you guys need to move on from?” They all looked at each other.

“We were waiting for you old man.” Schlatt chuckled.

Phil smiled and nodded the tears finally slipping.  
“Then let's go home.”


End file.
